Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

" Professor, did you receive an invite too? " A silver-haired old man, who looked like a scholar, smiled at his next dorm neighbour as he asked.

"Haha, I did, sir. It was from the Southern United Naval Design Bureau. Since you’re asking me such a question, it looks like you’ve been invited too," he said curiously. "Which design bureau invited you, Professor? May I know?"

The old man who asked the question smiled. "It’s the Berunda Design Bureau. I’ve got the invitation from Mr. Ghanaprabhu Berunda directly."

"Oh wow, it looks like the chairman of one of the four largest shipyards in the empire values you very much. But considering your achievements, it’s not too surprising." Although he was a little envious, there wasn’t much malice in his tone; instead, there was a sense of awe and respect.

This conversation, currently taking place in a dormitory at BIT Hoysala University, is not an isolated case.

After the various design bureaus received orders from His Majesty, they rapidly expanded their personnel. Since their work involves a lot of theoretical and calculation-based research, many mathematics professors from top-ranking Bharatiya Institutes of Technology were swiftly invited.

If it weren’t for the fact that the scientists at the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences were too busy to be invited, they would have been asked as well.

In the most extreme case, Danier Bosswell personally invited a professor at a BIT university who also happened to be a member of the Academy of Sciences. The reason Danier Bosswell placed so much importance on recruiting this man was because he was Sir Sanjeev Bansari, an expert in fluid mechanics.

Not only was he responsible for all the recent bridge construction technologies, but he also invented and popularized low-power water wheels. Danier Bosswell believed that, with his expertise, the designs at the Bosswell Design Bureau would be both practical and innovative.

The lively atmosphere of the various design bureaus of the empire recruiting scientists and professors caused a lot of commotion over the next few days. Within the intellectual circle, whether someone received an invitation or not had become the biggest proof of capability.

For the next few weeks, those who received an invitation, even if they didn’t ultimately accept it, were bragging as if to show off their gold medal.

In this way, a month soon passed.

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20th February 1658

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital-Bengaluru, Shourya Royal Palace

"Six!"

Vijay screamed as he happily played cricket with his son. Although Agni only hit the paper ball a few feet with his paper bat, Vijay was nonetheless very happy.

Kavya had come to call her husband and son for lunch, but upon seeing the scene, she didn’t want to interrupt. Eventually, Vijay noticed her.

"What’s up?" Vijay asked.

"Come over, the lunch is ready."

Vijay, along with Agni, soon arrived at the dining room. The Devaraya family had a warm meal together.

Vijay was washing his hands, which still had a few grains of rice on them. His wife handed him a towel, which he smiled and took. Meanwhile, he asked something he had been meaning to ask for a while. "Kavya, are you still not done with the first volume of your novel?" he inquired, not expecting Kavya to take such a long time to release the novel.

He knew, in a way, he was responsible for this since when Kavya gave the novel to him for proofreading, he had suggested improving it based on novels he had read in his past life.

Vijay had initially suggested she use his ideas in the second volume, but who would have thought she’d end up rewriting the first volume?

Kavya, who was about to bring in the dessert, heard the question. "I’ve completed it. It’s ready for publication. I’ll give you the manuscript. Please proofread it for me once again."

Vijay agreed, looking forward to the Bahubali in this era.

---

"Your Majesty, Mr. Bhaskar Acharya has requested to meet you," Ganesh informed Vijay as soon as he entered the Simhasana Bhavana.

Vijay had no idea why Bhaskar Acharya had arrived, but he decided to meet him, knowing that whatever the matter was, it was important nonetheless. There was a smile on Bhasker’s face, and Vijay immediately understood that the news must be good. His anticipation increased.

"Your Majesty, the three acids and two bases are now able to be mass-produced. The methods for mass production of these five chemicals have been fully researched. If you approve, I can arrange for a demonstration within a few days."

Vijay was overjoyed. The basic chemicals of chemistry were finally able to be mass-produced. Thinking about his schedule for the day, he realized there was nothing more important than the chemical industry.

"There is no need for a demo. I will personally inspect the production process that has been developed. Tell the research team who succeeded to be prepared with their prototype."

The answer was somewhat unexpected, as Bhaskar Acharya did not imagine His Majesty would travel personally just to inspect the prototype. However, he did not hesitate and readily arranged everything. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Vijay got into the carriage and left for the old capital of the empire and the current capital of Vijayanagar State—his hometown, Hampi.

Seeing the city after such a long time, Vijay felt a little conflicted. Due to Hampi no longer being the empire’s capital, its prosperity had sharply decreased. Although Hampi was still at the forefront in terms of economy and scale compared to other state capitals, it was far behind the prosperity it once had.

In the recent year, with its exceptional geographical positioning and the empire’s full support, Bengaluru’s economy had already caught up with that of Hampi, the empire’s former capital.

Although this showed that Vijay’s vision was right, he still felt a little bad about changing the capital of the empire, a capital where his ancestors had ruled for hundreds of years.

Fortunately, even though Hampi is not as bustling as it used to be, it has taken on a new character. Hampi is now fully surrounded by and engulfed in greenery, making the air in the city fresh and rejuvenating. During the time Hampi was the capital, Vijay had continuously built new monuments in the city and also rebuilt the old and destroyed ones.

Most of the materials used for reconstruction were newly quarried stone; hence, the whole city of Hampi, with the intervening strength and vitality brought about by the element of stone and greenery, looks like a fantasy kingdom from fictional novels. The whole city now looks like a large museum.

Each and every street of Hampi City has become an antique attraction due to the variety of houses built with unique characteristics. Hampi is on the path to becoming the architectural capital of Bharat. Vijay, who noticed this trend a few months ago, immediately decided to encourage the process; hence, he suggested the ban on cement houses that were just starting to appear.

In order to protect the character of Hampi, Vijay also suggested to the panchayat of Hampi that they ban all square buildings and only allow unique architecture to be constructed. The panchayat of Hampi had no resistance to Vijay, as they readily passed the bill.

Initially, there was some resistance since the people found out that antique buildings cost a lot of money, while square-type cement buildings cost much less. However, since it was a direct order from His Majesty, and the reasons for His Majesty’s decision were to preserve the architectural brilliance of Hampi, the residents reluctantly agreed.

In the future, when various architectural design bureaus settled in Hampi, the residents who were initially sad about spending too much on building their houses suddenly became happy, as they could simply stay in their homes and earn a lot of money from the rent. All this is a matter for the future.

For now, with the available architectural marvels, Hampi is attracting people not only from all parts of the empire but also, occasionally, from Europe, who come to see the legendary Hampi City, which gave birth to the great Bharatiya Empire and was also the hometown of the Devaraya family, the legendary emperor’s lineage of India.

"We are here, Your Majesty," Bhaskar Acharya said as he got down from the carriage and welcomed Vijay inside.

Vijay was not new to the place, as when he lived in Hampi, he used to come to this building regularly. So, even without Bhaskar Acharya’s direction, he quickly entered the laboratory of Arjun Patel and his group, the team that had successfully researched the mass production method for sulfuric acid.

Arjun Patel, who was nervously waiting for His Majesty’s arrival, stood up as soon as he saw him enter the lab. Everything felt so surreal that he couldn’t even react in time. Fortunately, the panicked greetings of his assistant researchers and interns brought him back to reality.

"Welcome, Your Majesty. It’s a great honour to meet you."

Vijay had a kind expression on his face. "Your team has done an excellent job researching the mass production of sulfuric acid, the most important acid in chemistry, so there’s no need to be humble. Come on, let’s see how this apparatus works."

Vijay pointed towards the various large pieces of equipment in the lab and asked.

"Oh, right away, Your Majesty," Arjun Patel soon instructed his assistant Bhaskar Iyer and the interns Rajani Deshmukh, Kavita Mehra, Pranav Chandra, and Raghav Nair to start the preparations. In the meanwhile, he helped His Majesty put on the safety equipment in order to start the production process.

"Captain, the debugging is completed; we can start the experiment," Rajani Deshmukh informed. Then, one of the interns brought over a chunk of yellow rock for inspection.

Arjun Patel observed the rock and nodded his head in approval. "This will do. Start the process."

In response to Vijay’s curiosity, Arjun went on to explain, "That yellow rock is called sulfur, Your Majesty. This is the raw material we chose to use in order to produce sulfuric acid. As an alternative, iron pyrite could also be used, but we don’t have enough research on that material, so we are currently using sulfur."

Vijay understood.

The intern went on to crush the sulfur into a powdered substance. Vijay felt doubtful about why this was done, but he did not ask, figuring he would understand as the process progressed.

The intern began to burn the sulfur powder in a furnace, which looked somewhat similar to a blast furnace.

"We tried to use other chambers in order to induce the reaction, Your Majesty, but unfortunately, they could not withstand the pressure brought by sulfur dioxide, which is the byproduct of burning sulfur."

"Next, Your Majesty, do you see the top part over there? It is called the Glover Tower. It is a packed tower where the hot sulfur dioxide gas is cooled and mixed with different nitrogen oxides to catalyze the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide (SO₃)."

"Haven’t I mentioned that we had a lot of trouble finding suitable material for the chamber? Finally, we concluded that lead is the most suitable material for this chamber, as it can resist the corrosive effects of sulfur and its oxides."

"This lead chamber is a chamber where sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide will mix with water vapour."

"This small tank here is there to produce the water vapour and send it up to the lead chamber for mixing in pre-designed ratios."

"The large chamber’s outer layer is metal, but the inner layer is lead; hence it is tight and resistant to corrosion, heat, and pressure. So when sulfur dioxide and trioxide mix with water vapour, they form sulfuric acid in mist form."

"This last tower is used to recollect the nitrogen oxides from the resultant gas, which mostly contains sulfuric acid mist. The nitrogen oxides collected are channelled back to the Glover Tower for reuse."

Vijay was brought to a small pit where a tank was placed within it. The tank was covered with water and wet jute bags.

"This is the condenser we designed, Your Majesty. The sulfuric acid mist from the tower travels through the valve pipes and comes into this condenser, which, due to pressure and temperature, goes from semi-liquid to fully liquid."

Saying that Patel took over a beaker, opened a valve in the condenser, and showed Vijay the resultant acid.

"Do a litmus test," Vijay ordered.

Arjun Patel was prepared; he quickly took out a litmus paper from the drawer in his table and immediately put a strip of paper into the beaker.

The litmus paper, which had been imported from the Netherlands through various means, immediately turned red, signifying the pH and acidity of the liquid.

Vijay was now fully sure that the mass production of sulfuric acid was a great success.

He was overjoyed; the Bharatiya Empire finally had a way to mass produce the king of acids, sulfuric acid, whose applications were endless.

"Did you name the process?"

Arjun Patel was a little shy. "I did, Your Majesty. I call it the Patel Lead Chamber Sulfuric Acid Manufacturing Process."

Vijay, hearing the name, was not unhappy; on the contrary, he was very satisfied. "That’s a good name, alright, Mr. Patel. And to your group, your research is a great success, and I will ensure that you receive the rewards you deserve."

The team members were all overjoyed. If it hadn’t been for His Majesty still being in the laboratory, they would have jumped up in joy.

---

Eventually, Vijay went on to visit four more research groups distributed throughout various organizations.

Vijay inspected the results of Mr Ravi Sharma’s team, who were successful in mass-producing hydrochloric acid using a method called Sharma’s Direct Synthesis Method.

Then he visited Gangapuri, where he met with the team of Siddharth Desai, composed of members from different BIT universities like Kozhikode, Hoysala, and Tanjavur. This team was successful in mass-producing nitric acid using a process called the Desai-Mehta Nitric Acid Distillation Method.

Eventually, he even took a boat ride to Bhubaneswar, where he Surprisingly met Anil Kumar at the medical university. Anil Kumar was successful in mass-producing sodium hydroxide, and the process he used was a little surprising to Vijay, as it was the Leblanc Process—one he remembered from his studies, invented by Nicolas Leblanc, a French chemist.

But Anil, in this era, seemed to have researched this method beforehand and named it the Anil Process.

Finally, Vijay arrived at the Research Institute run by the Devaraya family—the Devaraya Research Institute—where a chemist named Vikram Singh was successful in mass-producing calcium hydroxide using a method called Vikram’s Lime Kiln Process.

P.S. Sorry if there are errors, I’m tired